My Boss Hates Me!

It’s a tough one. You don’t particularly care for your manager, she’s not treating you well right now. You’re not getting the help and support you’d like, or perhaps it’s just too much meddling.

But does your boss really HATE you? That’s strong language!

I find sometimes that I tend to exaggerate emotions when I talk to others. Maybe I’m insecure and I need the extra attention, I don’t know. Or maybe it’s just easier to use strong words as it makes for interesting conversations.

You might want to pause for a minute before assigning such powerful words to someone else. Most likely your boss DOESN’T hate you. He might be struggling with difficult tradeoffs, like trying to cover work shifts with too few workers. Or not having enough money to pay workers what they deserve.

Management’s a tough job, one I have a lot of experience with. And to be honest, I’m glad I’ve gone away from that. There’s a lot of managers who are really struggling to do a good job, especially in the current economy.

I’ve found that it’s usually better to assume that someone is struggling rather than actually having bad intent. After all, being mean to others usually means making your own life more miserable. If not now, then eventually.

So I would guess that your boss probably doesn’t hate you, she’s just struggling to do a tough job, and perhaps failing at it. She may not particularly LIKE you, especially since you’re sending out those vibes because you think she hates you, but being friends in a boss/subordinate relationship isn’t the most important thing. Getting useful work done is what matters the most.

So next time you’re starting to think of others as truly evil, you might want to check your assumptions. And maybe soften the language just a bit.